The Mauve (Lilac) Boudoir
'The Mauve (Lilac) Boudoir' ' '''The Last Empress of Imperial Russia, was a very reserved and shy girl in her childhood. She witnessed great tragedy as a child, her little brother Friedrich or as he was known affectionately as ''Frittie, fell from a window, but survived the fall, later he died from his brain having hemmoraged. Prince Friedrich was also a haemophiliac. Another tragedy that the little Prinzessin Alix von Hessen und bei Rhein beared witness to was the death of her little sister Marie, whom she and her family affectionately called May, at the age of four died after having fallen ill with Diphtheria, which ironically all of the Grand Ducal Family von Hessen und bei Rhein fell ill with. A lasting tragedy for the young Prinzessin Alix to witness was the sudden death of her beloved Mother, the second-eldest daughter of Queen Victoria; Princess Alice of Great Britain. When the future Empress was a small child she had a beautiful smile, and everything was merry and sweet, charming about her. When her two small siblings, and her own mother died she lost the smile and rarely did you see Sunny. as was one of the family's nicknames for her. As the future Empress grew into a young woman she was cared for by her Grandmother (Queen Victoria) and her father, the Grand Duke von Hessen und bei Rhein (Louis IV). She grew up in a pre-dominately English environment, as her late-mother was a Princess of Great Britain. She, and her surviving siblings were always invited to spend the summers with their Grandmother, and so on and so forth. When the young Prinzessin Alix first met the young Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, both fell for one another instantaneously. Both showed signs of their infatuation which then turned into full-blown adoration for one another. This adoration and love that they shared continued on until their lives were cut short in a Siberian cellar-room in 1918. The Empress of Imperial Russia, used her reserved ways, and practical environments to build a cosy and comfortable home for her growing family. One of these cosy and comfortable places was the Mauve, or Lilac Boudoir. This room was third in-line of Her Imperial Majesty's Private Suite. It was only entered either two ways. One entrance was through a pocket double-door from the Palisander Drawing Room. The other entrance to the Boudoir was from the Imperial Bed-Chamber, which also had a recessed pocket double-door. Both of these double-doors were painted cream and had bas-relief of flowers and foliage, and paneled with square and concave corners. This paneled motif continued throughout the space along the wainscoting, which rose very high and was typical of English rooms of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The floor was covered in a beautiful English carpet, which was sewn together in strips, with a pattern of leaves in a darker hue set off with the pistachio hued background. The Empress' Boudoir owed it's name to the opalescent-hued silk that adorned the high walls, draperies, portieres, and every upholstered piece of furniture. This mauve or lilac silk (as it is Lilac in Russian) that was used in the re-decorating of this room, was a special French silk made by the still-existent Charles Berger's firm in Paris. It was described as a Lampas Violet Reseda, and was extremely expensive. A matching fabric made in Moscow, was used to cover all the furniture. This fabric was slightly different from the French silk as it had a slightly lighter tone to it, and had a raised floral motif woven into the material. Both of these were of Lampas silk, which is a raised reflective weave which gives the silk an unusual soft glimmer. There were two very large windows, in this space which flooded it with natural light. One window was a large picturesque window which gave the effect of the outside being right there when one looked out of it. It had a heavy drapery with tassels and was made of the same French material that hung on the high walls. The other window was a tall-arched framed window with glass panels, and was only hung with a simple silk shade which allowed this space to be a very bright and airy room to be in. The Empress' Boudoir did not have a central chandelier, but several or so electric lamps which were lit from below in the Basement where the Palace's electric fuseboxes were kept. During the night, this space was illuminated in-directly by these lamps and by soft lighting which illuminated the most important works of art in the space, by way of specially-made lamps. The furniture of Her Imperial Majesty's favourite room, was very dainty in it's appearance and made of lemonwood. It was custom designed by the Court Decorator; Roman F. Meltzer and made by a team of artisans in his family's Sankt. Petersbourg factory. All of the furniture was sculpted in the French rocaille style, with crisply carved motifs of swirls and shells. The furniture was painted cream to match the wainscoting, and door paneling, and covered in the lighter floral-motif silk that the Moscow firm created especially for this space. Every piece of shelving, book-cases, even the stand-up Becker piano which was skillfully designed by Meltzer were painted in the same creamy-white, to match the furniture and paneling of the entire room. There was a kosy-korner in the corner on the right-side, that had special shelving where countless family fotographs, faberge-framed fotographs etc... were kept. On the very back wall, sat a beautifully scuplted rocaille-styled fireplace, with lots of shelving and family fotographs, statues and was the center-piece for the Empress' art glass collection. The cornice, below the ceiling had a Art Nouveau frieze of Irises with intertwining ribbons, and was completed in 1896 by the painter Alexandrov. The ceiling was left over from the time of Tsar Alexander II, when this room was part of a honeymoon suite given to his daughter the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna when she married Prince Alfred the Duke of Edinburgh, the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria. The Empress was a practical woman in her ways, and personal appointments and adored so much to have her many pets and children around her. This of course took it's inevitable wear and tear on the furniture and carpeting, and large bulk pieces of the carpet, and uniquely-manufactured silk for the chairs was kept year-round incase of accidents that needed to be quickly remedied. In this space, the Empress kept her most favoured paintings, and artworks. The Empress' favourites were a pastel oil by Nesterov of the Annunciation given to her by her beloved husband in 1897, a painting of her late-mother by di Angeli which her Grandmother, also had a copy of herself. Above the Empress' silk-covered day-bed was a French painting by Papion of the Virgin sleeping. Two portraits hung on either side of the rocaille-styled fireplace the two most beloved men in her life; her husband and her darling and only son. The Empress was very uncaring of how her personal and private papers, and the many crammed books in the shelves looked, which unlike her husband who was one to keep everything in his private spaces very neat and tidy, with not a paper out of place. During her tenure as Empress of Imperial Russia, this space was never changed, and stayed the same as decorating styles came and went. Relatives, dignitaries and the like thought the room to be a joke as it was highly by the Great War (1914 - 1918) out-dated. But the Empress, would not have this room re-decorated or modernised. She loved the colour lilac as it was her favourite colour, and the silk was said to have matched a favourite sprig of lilac given to her by her beloved husband; Nicholas II. In the countless fotograph albums, that have surfaced and fotographs taken during their lifetimes, as the Imperial Family were prolific fotographers and had a camera on them at all times. This room was heavily documented through their fotographs, as it was when they had lived at the Alexander Palace. One of the most infamous corners of the Boudoir was perhaps the corner wall nearest the Imperial Bed-Chamber. A large, plush arm-chair with a high backing, and covered with the Moscow-made silk sat in this corner, next to it was a side table. This corner is one of the most fotographed spots of the Empress' Boudoir. There are countless fotos of the Empress, her husband, and children posing at this spot, on the arm-chair etc... It is with these countless albums and loose fotographs that the Alexander Palace is so well documented. On the 1st of August, in 1917 the Empress and her beloved family were forced to leave the safety and relative comfort of their beautiful home. Soon after, their homely-palace was made into a museum honouring the last Russian Imperial Family. This museum included the Empress' famed Mauve or Lilac Boudoir, including many of the countless interior spaces of the entire East Wing or Imperial Wing. This museum operated in this manner right up until the beginning of the Second World War. The museum's curators, and workers fled taking along with them the most valuable, and most historically-significant pieces they could carry. The rest that could not be taken or carried away, which amounted to countless pieces of artistically-significant, and historical pieces were left behind. When Nazi Germany took it's occupation of the town of Tsarskoe Selo, many pieces like furniture, clothing and art works were destroyed or ruined during the Second World War (World War II). Ironically, most of the interiors of the Alexander Palace, including Her Imperial Majesty's Boudoir were largely un-scathed or had little to no damage in them. When the museum curators, and workers came back to survey the damages, they realised it was the best preserved and still-standing of the Imperial residences, where as residences such as the Catherine were completely burnt out shells. With this realisation came the hopes and plans to actually restore the Palace to how the Imperial Family had departed from it back in August of 1917. But, unfortunately Josef Stalin, who was the dictatorial leader of the Soviet Union at the time, wanted nothing at all to be left of the old regime under Tsar Nicholas II, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. This decision ended with the result of the remaining, historical interiors of the last Romanovs ripped out completely, and the Alexander Palace then became a generic Russian museum. The Empress' Suite in particular recieved the most ruthless destruction by the Soviets as she was during the Russian Revolution though of as a German spy, spying for the Kaiser and Wilhelmstrasse. Of course this wasn't the case, but the Soviets wanted no one to recognise the Palace as the last home of the former Imperial Family, and at one time it was actually a crime to recognise even anything that was of the former Russian Imperial Court. Today, the Empress' favourite room is now a very open room, with mock-up pieces of bulky furniture, and lots of art-glass and some artwork on the walls to give the feel of what once was a very cheerful, and bright room. The Mauve (Lilac) Boudoir, as it appears today Mama's former Boudoir (3)... Not the original arm chair (1) .jpg|A mock-up corner chair to substitute for the original, where many family fotographs were taken. Mama's former Boudoir (9).jpg|The right-side of the Empress' former Boudoir, with mock-up furniture and some props from a movie having been filmed there. Mama's former Boudoir (12).jpg|A back-drop of the real Boudoir makes such a startling comparison of the way it appears now. Mama's former Boudoir (10).jpg|The left-side of the Empress' former Boudoir, where some original furnishings such as the Empress' original writing desk can be seen. Mama's former Boudoir (11).jpg|A tea-table set for the Imperial Family to return from their long over-due home-coming. Mama's former Boudoir (5).png|A stand-in piano, substitutes for the original Becker piano which stood at an angle, where many a time the Tsar played piano while the children and his wife sang. +